5 Feb 2019

Humor path : Icebreaker

Level 1 is the same for all the path. It should not be used the same way, we can personalize any Project! What would I say, break the ice, in my next path? I could begin by presenting my humorous alter-egos. Show the picture bellow, I use in my Standup comedy. Of course, it would be like giving the punch line away, never do it! without all that leads to it. Should I ? In my Icebreaker I should rather tell how I arrived to humor? Why I had to wait 70 years, from 7 to 77 to learn making laugh others?Or play part of my standup routine. Nowadays, it is in the middle. It begins with the biggest low in my life: finding out that my husband (first ex) cheated on me. Then, how when I, finally reciprocated, he did not find it out for a whole year... because women do not shave. That is, I add here, till 50. Tell, all the ways I tried to get read of my facial hair. Till at 77 birthday, my son offers me a bottle... of shaving cream. "Did you ever seen a woman with shaving cream on her face? Want to see?"

I usually get for this picture, printed like a poster, a standing ovation.

Alas, with this text, I killed my routine as I did not wrote like I play it. Instead of showing, I told. No! It is not so much what you say, even if self depreciating stories work for me, or telling things that a 77+ is not supposed to tell, it is mostly how we tell it.So, what should I do in my icebreaker? Just give my middle routine, as in a Standup or tell my audience how I arrived to begin Standup comedy at 77 ? Four to six minutes goes away fast. I will have to decide.Why I did not try to make laugh from age 7 ?My first ever telling a joke was to the wrong audience: my mother. In school, we loved the dirty joke, falling on the street in dirt... but my mother did not. "That is not funny!" I understood "You are not funny."

Indeed, the audience is very important. We tell different jokes to different people, even if all understand and appreciate some parts. Audience matters. And it matters also they understand. We have to "setup", prepare each in different ways. Toastmasters differently than doctors, than children than men or women. And where they are?Supply all the audience need in order to understand. And with time, we also learn how to try out a brand new audience at the beginning and find out how far we can go, what they love to laugh of."Begin with yourself" I was taught, the stereotype they see when you appear on the stage. Eventually I prove, it is not all true. Will I use 2 four letter words to prove it? Or telling them a truth as "I am single, ready to mingle?" Single white haired? that makes already makes smile or laugh. At 77+ " single"? Ready to mingle? Well, I wish. Hearing laughter is rewarding!